Written January 2019 – Unedited
Speed
You know what the problem is when you live your life going a hundred miles an hour? (which for those of you on the metric system is just over 160km/h) It’s not the ride. The ride starts out exciting, fun.
Everyone pile in, it’s going to fab.
We can go here, do that, see this, stop there.
The ride, while on it, is great, exhilarating even.
The car seems ok.
It had a service a while back.
All looks good.
Fill up and lets f… off.
Go Go Go.
You start out intent on enjoying the drive, gearing up when needed, down when required.
You have a journey mapped out, it looks perfect.
It’s going to be awesome.
Experiences, sightseeing, rest, relaxation, excitement, challenges, success, love, laughter, joy.
But somewhere along the journey, the car veers off course and is piling up with stuff and more and more passengers appear, until you are not even sure what or who is on the ride with you and then you hit cruise control – autopilot kicks in.
The car changes from manual to automatic, and firmly in the D position.
Non-stop acceleration, trying desperately to get back on track to the predetermined destination.
The beautiful scenery along the route becomes a blur, the conversations become clutter, the stops become non-existent.
It changes from being a wonderful, happy journey to pure frantic survival mode.
You are so busy keeping your eye on the road, trying to find your way that you don’t even realise where you are going, or ask why, or ask someone for directions? Adrenaline keeps you going, keeps you moving.
The flight or fight mode becomes the norm – your preference of course is flight.
The movie Speed comes to mind all of a sudden. Sandra (who I used to hate, but then after The Proposal and that football movie whose name I can never remember, redeemed herself and is now no longer on my “avoid her movies” list) driving that bus, speeding, going, going, going, causing havoc in its wake. Dare it drop below 50 miles per hour and the world will explode.
So too, do you, keep going, going going.
The car is starting to make a rattling noise. There is smoke coming out the exhaust. There is a crack in the window. The oil light has come on. The tyres tread is wearing thin. The windscreen is dirty and difficult to see out of. No one has noticed the fuel gauge dipping lower and lower.
Keep going, going going.
Night time comes. Those with night blindness will know all to well how scary it is to drive. Is that a corner coming up or not? Oops, did I just ramp a bit of pavement? Shit I better put my brights on. Heck sorry I just blinded that driver. The car’s dashboard is now looking like a Christmas tree. All warning lights are flashing. The mist is rolling in as well now. Never mind, keep going.
You should have put the hazard lights on by this stage.
But you didn’t.
You should have seen what was in front of you, what they were heading towards.
But you didn’t.
You couldn’t.
Not with a cracked, dirty windscreen and night blindness.
How could you have?
You assumed there was more road ahead of you.
There wasn’t.
You slam on the breaks.
They don’t work.
Perfectly Sorted 
Leave a Reply